The present invention relates to a shopping cart which has available additional storage capacity and is nestable with other shopping carts.
There is a need to increase the storage capacities of shopping carts, such as grocer carts. However, replacing carts currently owned by a merchant with new shopping carts imposes high costs to the merchant without a guarantee of substantial returns. In addition to the purchase of new carts, the costs may include resizing storage racks located throughout a premises in which the carts are used, purchasing accessories for cart storage, or adjusting the dimensions between each cashier station.
Moreover. merely purchasing additional shopping carts having greater dimensional features than current shopping carts imposes a problem to the merchant in the process of gathering and nesting the carts together. Shopping carts are usually gathered and nested together by manually pushing the front of one cart into the rear of another cart. Generally shopping carts have a rear panel which is pivotable to an upwardly folding position for storage of a group of carts in customary fashion. Typically, since the rear of one cart complements the front of another cart in order to be nested together, this type of nesting cannot be performed with carts having different dimensions.
Thus, what is needed is an improved shopping cart having additional storage capacity.
What is also needed is an improved shopping cart which is easily gathered and nested.
What is also needed is an improved shopping cart which may be nested with conventional shopping carts.
It is an object of the present invention to provide for an improved shopping cart having additional Storage capacity and nestable with other shopping carts. In one embodiment, the shopping cart comprises a front end having upper and lower portions, and a storage compartment pivotally connected to the lower portion of the cart. The storage compartment is configured to manually pivot fore with respect to the front end defining an added storage position outside the shopping cart and configured to automatically pivot aft with respect to the front end defining a stowed position within the shopping cart when nested with another shopping cart.
In particular, the shopping cart comprises a front end having upper and lower portions, cud a storage compartment pivotally connected to the lower portion of the front end. The storage compartment has a pin and slot arrangement between the upper portion of the front end of the cart and the top of the storage compartment to guide pivotal movement of the storage compartment fore and aft with respect to the front end. The storage compartment is manually pivotable fore with respect to the front end to define an added storage position outside the shopping cart and automaticalIy pivotable aft with respect to the front end to define a stowed position within the shopping cart when nested with another shopping cart.
More specifically, the shopping cart comprises a front end having upper and lower portions, and a storage compartment pivotally connecting to the lower portion of the cart by a fixed pivot pin. The front end of the cart has a stop pin in the upper portion and the storage compartment has a track or slot to receive the stop pin to which the storage compartment attaches to guide pivotal movement of the storage compartment fore and aft with respect to the front end. The storage compartment is manually pivotable fore with respect to the front end to define an added storage position outside the shopping cart and automatically pivotable aft with respect to the front end to define a stowed position within the shopping cart when nested with another shopping cart.
The above object and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best mode for carrying out the invention when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.